The present invention relates generally to infant feeding systems, and more particularly, to an infant feeding system which includes a baby bottle for feeding the infant and a support member upon which the baby bottle is positioned so that a caregiver is not required to continuously hold and support the baby bottle for the infant.
Feeding systems which allow an infant to receive liquid nourishment unassisted by a caregiver are known in the art. These devices generally include a baby bottle and a support member usually in the form of a stuffed animal or other friendly looking creature. Many of these systems also provide a mechanism attached to the support member for grasping the baby bottle and maintaining the baby bottle in a fixed relationship with respect to the support member for feeding purposes.
One of the problems associated with the prior art designs is that the lateral orientation of the baby bottle is fixed with respect to the support member so as to provide only one feeding position. Another problem with the prior art devices is that the grasping mechanism which engages the baby bottle to the support member does not provide a constant tension around the bottle to prevent undesired movement of the baby bottle within the grasping mechanism during feeding. Even more, these grasping mechanism are not removable from the support structure thereby leading to more difficult operation and mounting of the baby bottle.